Supporting adolescents' participation in muscle-strengthening physical activity: protocol for the 'Resistance Training for Teens' (RT4T) hybrid type III implementation-effectiveness trial.

Introduction: In Australia, only 22% of male and 8% of female adolescents meet the muscle-strengthening physical activity guidelines, and few school-based interventions support participation in resistance training (RT). After promising findings from our effectiveness trial, we conducted a state-wide dissemination of the '' (RT4T) intervention from 2015 to 2020. Despite high estimated reach, we found considerable variability in programme delivery and teachers reported numerous barriers to implementation.

The effects of active classroom breaks on moderate to vigorous physical activity, behaviour and performance in a Northern NSW primary school: A quasi-experimental study.

Issue Addressed: Approximately 77% of NSW children aged 5 to 15 years do not meet physical activity guidelines and many spend a considerable amount of time sitting. Active breaks at primary school are feasible, may increase daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and decrease off-task behaviour without adversely affecting cognitive function and learning.

Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 101 primary school children in six intervention classrooms participated in three 10-minute active breaks per day for six-weeks during class time, while five control classrooms were run as usual (n = 89).

Implementation of the programme to prevent falls in older people: a process evaluation protocol.

Introduction: One in three people aged 65 years and over fall each year. The health, economic and personal impact of falls will grow substantially in the coming years due to population ageing. Developing and implementing cost-effective strategies to prevent falls and mobility problems among older people is therefore an urgent public health challenge.

Applying the Ottawa Charter to inform health promotion programme design.

There is evidence of a correlation between adoption of the Ottawa Charter's framework of five action areas and health promotion programme effectiveness, but the Charter's framework has not been as fully implemented as hoped, nor is generally used by formal programme design models. In response, we aimed to translate the Charter's framework into a method to inform programme design. Our resulting design process uses detailed definitions of the Charter's action areas and evidence of predicted effectiveness to prompt greater consideration and use of the Charter's framework.

Correlates of Gross Motor Competence in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: Gross motor competence confers health benefits, but levels in children and adolescents are low. While interventions can improve gross motor competence, it remains unclear which correlates should be targeted to ensure interventions are most effective, and for whom targeted and tailored interventions should be developed.

Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to identify the potential correlates of gross motor competence in typically developing children and adolescents (aged 3-18 years) using an ecological approach.

Three-year follow-up of an early childhood intervention: what about physical activity and weight status?

Background: Fundamental movement skills are a correlate of physical activity and weight status. Children who participated in a preschool intervention had greater movement skill proficiency and improved anthropometric measures (waist circumference and BMI z scores) post intervention. Three years later, intervention girls had retained their object control skill advantage.

Integrating relationship- and research-based approaches in Australian health promotion practice.

We examine the perspectives of health promotion practitioners on their approaches to determining health promotion practice, in particular on the role of research and relationships in this process. Using Grounded Theory methods, we analysed 58 semi-structured interviews with 54 health promotion practitioners in New South Wales, Australia. Practitioners differentiated between relationship-based and research-based approaches as two sources of knowledge to guide health promotion practice.

Face validity and reliability of a pictorial instrument for assessing fundamental movement skill perceived competence in young children.

Objectives: To determine reliability and face validity of an instrument to assess young children's perceived fundamental movement skill competence.

Design: Validation and reliability study.

Methods: A pictorial instrument based on the Test Gross Motor Development-2 assessed perceived locomotor (six skills) and object control (six skills) competence using the format and item structure from the physical competence subscale of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Acceptance for Young Children.

Three year follow-up of an early childhood intervention: is movement skill sustained?

Background: Movement skill competence (e.g. the ability to throw, run and kick) is a potentially important physical activity determinant.

Prevalence and correlates of low fundamental movement skill competency in children.

Objective: To describe the demographic and health-related characteristics of school-aged children with low competency in fundamental movement skills (FMS).

Methods: Cross-sectional representative school-based survey of Australian elementary and high school students (n = 6917) conducted in 2010. Trained field staff measured students' height, weight, and assessed FMS and cardiorespiratory endurance (fitness).

Tooty Fruity Vegie: an obesity prevention intervention evaluation in Australian preschools.

Issues Addressed: This paper presents the findings from a cluster randomised controlled evaluation of a preschool-based intervention (children aged 3-6 years), on the North Coast of NSW, which aimed to decrease overweight and obesity prevalence among children by improving fundamental movement skills (FMS), increasing fruit and vegetable intake and decreasing unhealthy food consumption.

Methods: The Tooty Fruity Vegie in Preschools program was implemented in 18 preschools for 10 months during 2006 and 2007. It included nutrition and physical activity strategies.

Making sense in a complex landscape: how the Cynefin Framework from Complex Adaptive Systems Theory can inform health promotion practice.

Health promotion addresses issues from the simple (with well-known cause/effect links) to the highly complex (webs and loops of cause/effect with unpredictable, emergent properties). Yet there is no conceptual framework within its theory base to help identify approaches appropriate to the level of complexity. The default approach favours reductionism--the assumption that reducing a system to its parts will inform whole system behaviour.

Reduction in staff smoking rates in North Coast Area Health Service, NSW, following the introduction of a smoke-free workplace policy.

Aim: To evaluate changes in staff smoking rates following the implementation of Smoke Free Health Care, an innovative, change-management process that introduced a smoke-free workplace policy in the North Coast Area Health Service of NSW.

Methods: Survey questionnaires were sent to all staff before and after the introduction of the policy. Return rates were 17.

Evidence, ethics, and values: a framework for health promotion.

We propose a new approach to guide health promotion practice. Health promotion should draw on 2 related systems of reasoning: an evidential system and an ethical system. Further, there are concepts, values, and procedures inherent in both health promotion evidence and ethics, and these should be made explicit.

Young driver education programs that build resilience have potential to reduce road crashes.

Objective: The research aimed to explore associations between participation in 2 education programs for school-based learner drivers and subsequent road traffic offenses and crashes among a large cohort of newly licensed drivers.

Methods: DRIVE is a prospective cohort study of 20822 first-year drivers aged 17 to 24 in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Participants completed a detailed questionnaire and consented to data linkage in 2003-2004.

Tooty Fruity Vegie in Preschools: an obesity prevention intervention in preschools targeting children's movement skills and eating behaviours.

Issue Addressed: This paper outlines the implementation strategies and evaluation methods of the Tooty Fruity Vegie (TFV) in Preschools program in NSW Australia which addressed diet, movement skills and overweight indicators.

Methods: The TFV program was a one-year intervention conducted during 2006 and 2007 in 18 preschools (matched with 13 control preschools). The study had a quasi-experimental design with pre- and postintervention evaluation of nutrition and physical activity variables as well as anthropometric measures.

Six year follow-up of students who participated in a school-based physical activity intervention: a longitudinal cohort study.

Background: The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the long-term impact of a childhood motor skill intervention on adolescent motor skills and physical activity.

Methods: In 2006, we undertook a follow-up of motor skill proficiency (catch, kick, throw, vertical jump, side gallop) and physical activity in adolescents who had participated in a one-year primary school intervention Move It Groove It (MIGI) in 2000. Logistic regression models were analysed for each skill to determine whether the probability of children in the intervention group achieving mastery or near mastery was either maintained or had increased in subsequent years, relative to controls.

The Mull Hypothesis: is cannabis use contributing to high tobacco use prevalence among young North Coast males?

Men aged 25-34 years, in North Coast NSW, have higher documented smoking rates than elsewhere in the state. The present paper explores potential causes of elevated smoking rates in this population and proposes that tobacco dependence resulting from 'mulling' (mixing) cannabis with tobacco may be contributing.

Creating active playgrounds in primary schools.

Issue Addressed: To identify a model for a process that will support schools to implement environmental modifications in playgrounds aimed at increasing physical activity.

Methods: Kidsafe NSW (Playground Advisory Unit) was commissioned by the former Illawarra Health Promotion Unit (IHPU) to develop playground concept designs, safety audits and detailed reports for three primary schools. Each report contained several environmental recommendations to increase participation in physical activity.

Is it worth the RRISK? Evaluation of the RRISK (Reduce Risk Increase Student Knowledge) program for adolescents in rural Australia.

Purpose: This study evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention targeting adolescent risk-taking associated with drug and alcohol use, driving, and celebrating.

Methods: Pre- and post written surveys were administered in 21 intervention and 19 comparison schools in Northern New South Wales during March 2003 and 2004. The instrument covered knowledge and attitudes associated with self-reported potentially harmful and protective behaviors.

Heavy episodic drinking and sensation seeking in adolescents as predictors of harmful driving and celebrating behaviors: implications for prevention.

Objectives: Effectiveness of strategies to counter injurious risk-taking in adolescents depends on the degree to which behaviors are modifiable or intrinsic to a sensation-seeking personality. Alcohol consumption is often targeted because it is seen as a modifiable determinant. This study sought to clarify the relative importance of engagement in heavy episodic drinking (HED) independently of sensation-seeking tendency (SS), as a predictor of potentially harmful (and protective) behaviors.